Cleaning tool

ABSTRACT

A cleaning tool includes a holding rod and a cleaning assembly that is disposed on at least one end of the holding rod, wherein a connecting assembly is disposed between the holding rod and the cleaning assembly. The connecting assembly includes a controlling member having an engaging portion and a pressing portion. When the holding rod is connected to the cleaning assembly, the engaging portion corresponds to an engaged portion on an inner wall of a connecting tube of the cleaning assembly, so that the holding rod and the cleaning assembly are locked to each other, and the pressing portion is located out of the connecting tube. When the pressing portion is pressed, the engaging portion is disengaged from the engaged portion, thereby allowing the holding rod to be disengaged from the cleaning assembly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to a cleaning tool, and more particularly to a cleaning tool having a cleaning head that could be detached and replaced easily.

Description of Related Art

A conventional cleaning tools have multiple types and designs for different purposes. The conventional cleaning tool includes a long rod body for a user to hold easily. Taking a scraper for removing dirt, snow, or water as an example, an end of the long rod body is connected to a cleaning head, wherein the cleaning head could be a broom, brush, snow shovel, or a scraper. Since the long rod body and the cleaning head of the conventional cleaning tool is fixed, more space is needed for storing the cleaning tools for different purposes. Therefore, the cleaning tool with the fixed cleaning head is not convenient for storing.

In order to solve the aforementioned defect, there is a cleaning tool on the market, wherein a long rod body is detachably connected to a cleaning head. For example, according to “Brushware operating lever with telescopic locating function” of China utility model patent publication number CN201270923Y, an end of a connecting rod is disposed with a protruding lump, and a rotating rod is disposed with a fixing hole. When the connecting rod is inserted into the rotating rod, the protruding lump is engaged with the fixing hole, thereby connecting the connecting rod and the rotating rod.

According to the disclosure of the aforementioned patent, when the connecting rod is about to be disengaged from the rotating rod, the protruding lump should be pressed downwardly first to allow the protruding lump leaving from the fixing hole. After that, the connecting rod is withdrawn from the rotating rod, so that the connecting rod and the rotating rod are departed. However, the protruding lump is adapted to lock the components and to be pressed by the user. When the user presses the protruding lump by a finger and withdraws the connecting rod from the rotating rod, the finger is easily pinched between an edge of the fixing hole of the rotating rod and the protruding lump of the connecting rod. On the other hand, when the connecting rod is about to be assembled with the rotating rod, the protruding lump needs to be pressed for allowing the connecting rod to be inserted into the rotating rod. During the assembly process, the finger could probably be pinched and injured. Besides, the protruding lump and the connecting rod is integrally formed as a monolithic unit, so that the protruding lump is connected to the connecting rod via a small rib, thereby allowing the protruding lump could be pressed. After repeatedly used for a long period of time, the small rib is easily broken due to the stress. In such situation, the structure losses the function of connecting.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above, the primary objective of the present invention is to provide a cleaning tool, wherein a cleaning assembly of the cleaning tool could be easily and safely detached from and mounted to the holding rod, so that the cleaning assembly could be replaced easily.

The present invention provides a cleaning tool that includes a holding rod, a cleaning assembly, and a connecting assembly. The cleaning assembly has a connecting tube. The connecting assembly includes an engaged portion, a controlling member, and an elastic member, wherein the engaged portion is disposed on an inner wall of the connecting tube, and the controlling member and the elastic member are disposed at an end of the holding rod. The controlling member has an engaging portion and a pressing portion. The elastic member is located between the controlling member and the holding rod. When the end of the holding rod is inserted into the connecting tube, the engaging portion is located in the connecting tube, and the pressing portion is located out of the connecting tube. An elastic force provided by the elastic member pushes the engaging portion to be engaged with the engaged portion. When the pressing portion is pressed downward, the engaging portion is disengaged from the engaged portion.

With such design, the engaging portion, for connecting the holding rod and the cleaning assembly, and the pressing portion, for disengaging the holding rod from the cleaning assembly, are arranged separately, thereby simplifying the operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of some illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the cleaning tool of an embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of a part of the cleaning tool shown in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the connector of the cleaning tool shown in FIG. 2 ;

FIG. 4 is similar to FIG. 3 , which is seen from another perspective;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the controlling member of the cleaning tool shown in FIG. 2 ;

FIG. 6 is similar to FIG. 5 , which is seen from another perspective;

FIG. 7 is a side view of the controlling member of the cleaning tool shown in FIG. 5 ;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of the part of the cleaning tool shown in FIG. 2 , showing the cleaning tool is assembled; and

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along the 9-9 line in FIG. 1 .

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As illustrated in FIG. 1 , a cleaning tool 1 of an embodiment according to the present invention includes a holding rod 10, wherein each of two ends of the holding rod 10 is connected to a cleaning assembly 20 via a connecting assembly 30, thereby enhancing the convenience of assembly and disassembly between the holding rod 10 and the cleaning assembly 20. For illustrating easily, the following description merely takes the cleaning assembly and the connecting assembly at one of the two ends of the holding rod 10 as an example to describe in detail.

As illustrated in FIG. 2 , the holding rod 10 includes a rod body 12 and a connector 14, wherein an end of the rod body 12 is connected to the connector 14. The connector 14 has a cavity 141 that is recessed into a circumference of the connector 14 and is long-shaped. As illustrated in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 , a recess 141 a is recessed into each of two lateral sides of an inner wall of the cavity 141. A positioning member 141 b is protruded from a bottom of the cavity 141. A sinkhole 141 c is recessed into the bottom of the cavity 141. A groove 141 d is recessed into a side of the cavity 141 which is opposite to another side of the cavity 141 at where the positioning member 141 b is located. Additionally, the circumference of the connector 14 has two protruding bars 141 e that extend along an axial direction of the connector 14 and are arranged at two sides of the cavity 141, respectively.

The cleaning assembly 20 includes a connecting tube 22 and a cleaning head 24, wherein an end of the connecting tube 22 is connected to the cleaning head 24. The cleaning head 24 could be a snow shovel, a scraper, a brush, or other cleaning devices, depending on the required demand. Another end of the connecting tube 22, which is opposite to the end of the connecting tube 22 connected to the cleaning head 24, is detachably connected to the connector 14 of the holding rod 10. An inner wall of the connecting tube 22 has two slots 221 that are arranged to correspond to the protruding bars 141 e of the connector 14. It should be noted that a number of the protruding bar 141 e corresponds to a number of the slot 221. In other words, when the number of the protruding bars 141 e is one, the number of the slot 221 is one correspondingly. Additionally, an opening end of the connector 14, which is adapted to be connected to the connecting tube 22, is recessed to form a notch 222.

The connecting assembly 30 includes a controlling member 32, an elastic member 34, and an engaged portion, wherein the controlling member 32 and the elastic member 34 are disposed at the end of the holding rod 10, and the engaged portion is disposed in the inner wall of the connecting tube 22. In the current embodiment, the elastic member 34 is a spring as an example. As illustrated in FIG. 5 and FIG. .6 , the controlling member 32 is a long-shaped plate body and has an engaging portion and a pressing portion, wherein the engaging portion is constituted by a protrusion 321, and the pressing portion is constituted by a button 322. As illustrated in FIG. 7 , a horizontal line L is defined to pass through the controlling member 32, wherein the button 322 and the protrusion 321 has a first height H1 and a second height H2, respectively relative to the horizontal line L, and the first height H1 is greater than the second height H2. The protrusion 321 has a slanted surface 321 a. A part of the controlling member 32 beneath the horizontal line L is inclined, wherein a height of the part of the controlling member 32 relative to the horizontal line L is gradually increased in a direction from the button 322 to the protrusion 321. It should be noted that a side of the controlling member 32 which has the protrusion 321 and the button 322 is defined as an upside. Two longitudinal edges of the controlling member 32 are below the horizontal line L, wherein a side block 323 is laterally protruded from the controlling member 32 and is located at a portion of each of the two longitudinal edges of the controlling member 32, which is near the protrusion 321. A tongue 324 is formed by protruding outwardly from a lateral edge of the controlling member 32 that is near the button 322. Additionally, the controlling member 32 has a positioning groove 325 that is recessed from a bottom surface of the controlling member 32, and the button 322 has a hollowed portion 322 a that is recessed from a bottom surface of the controlling member 32, either.

As illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9 , when the side blocks 323 of the controlling member 32 are aligned with and inserted into the recess 141 a of the connector 14, and the tongue 324 of the controlling member 32 is inserted into the groove 141 d of the connector 14, the controlling member 32 is located in the cavity 141. Simultaneously, the positioning groove 325 of the controlling member 32 and the positioning member 141 b of the connector 14 could engage to enhance the stability of the engagement between the controlling member 32 and the connector 14. Besides, before the controlling member 32 is engaged with the connector 14, the elastic member 34 is put between the controlling member 32 and the connector 14. After the controlling member 32 is engaged with the connector 14, an end of the elastic member 34 urges against a bottom wall of the sinkhole 141 c of the cavity 141 of the connector 14, and another end of the elastic member 34 urges against an inner wall of the hollowed portion 322 a of the controlling member 32. An elastic force of the elastic member 34 pushes the controlling member 32 to move a side of the controlling member 32, which has the hollowed portion 322 a, upward along a fulcrum, wherein the fulcrum is another side of the controlling member 32 with the side blocks 323. The controlling member 32 that is pushed upward abuts against a wall of the groove 141 d of the connector 14 via the tongue 324 thereof, so that the controlling member 32 does not be disengaged from the connector 14. Since the height of the part of the controlling member 32 beneath the horizontal line L is gradually increasing in the direction from the button 322 to the protrusion 321, a portion of the controlling member 32 that has the button 322 could be moved more when the button 322 is pressed downward.

The engaged portion of the connecting assembly 30 is constituted by an engaging recess 36 that is formed by recessing into an inner surface of the connecting tube 22. The engaging recess 36 is near the notch 222. A depth of the engaging recess 36 is gradually increased in a direction from a side of the engaging recess 36 away from the notch 222 to another side of the engaging recess 36 near the notch 222. A tilted bottom of the engaging recess 36 corresponds to the slanted surface 321 a of the protrusion 321.

As illustrated in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 , when the connector 14 at the end of the holding rod 10 needs to be inserted into the connecting tube 22 of the cleaning assembly 20, the protruding bars 141 e of the connector 14 are aligned with and slid into the slots 221 of the connecting tube 22 first. With such design, when the protruding bars 141 e are engaged with the slots 221, the holding rod 10 does not rotate relative to the cleaning assembly 20.

During a process of inserting the connector 14 into the connecting tube 22, the protrusion 321 of the controlling member 32 touches an edge of the opening end of the connecting tube 22 first. As the connector 14 being further inserted into the connecting tube 22 until the protrusion 321 completely enters the engaging recess 36 of the connecting tube 22, a side of the controlling member 32 having the button 322 is pressed downwardly by the connecting tube 22 to compress the elastic member 34. More specifically, the controlling member 32 is pressed to move downward along the slanted surface 321 a of the protrusion 321. Since the protrusion 321 abuts against a wall of the engaging recess 36, the holding rod 10 could not depart from the connecting tube 22. Simultaneously, the button 322 of the controlling member 32 is located right in the notch 222 and out of the connecting tube 22. The elastic force of the elastic member 34 could keep the protrusion 321 (namely the engaging portion) is reliably engaged with the engaging recess 36 (namely the engaged portion) before the controlling member 32 is not pressed. On the contrary, when the button 322 (namely the pressing portion) is pressed, the controlling member 32 is moved downwardly along the fulcrum (namely the two side blocks 323) to drive the protrusion 321 to be disengaged from the engaging recess 36. At the time, the holding rod 10 could be withdrawn relative to the connecting tube 22, so that the holding rod 10 and the cleaning assembly 20 could be disassembled from each other. Furthermore, an alternative cleaning assembly with different functions could be mounted to the holding rod 10.

In the current embodiment, the controlling member 32 includes the engaging portion (namely the protrusion 321) for engaging the holding rod 10 and the cleaning assembly 20 and the pressing portion (namely the button 322) for detaching the holding rod 10 and the cleaning assembly 20, wherein the engaging portion and the pressing portion are arranged apart from each other. The conventional button is adapted to be engaged for locking and be pressed for unlocking, so that the defect of the conventional button is that the finger of the user is easily pinched and injured during pressing the button. The controlling member 32 of the current embodiment of the present invention could avoid the defect of the conventional button, thereby simplifying the operation and enhancing the safety during assembly and disassembly.

It must be pointed out that the embodiment described above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention. All equivalent structures which employ the concepts disclosed in this specification and the appended claims should fall within the scope of the present invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A cleaning tool, comprising: a holding rod; a cleaning assembly having a connecting tube; a connecting assembly comprising an engaged portion, a controlling member, and an elastic member, wherein the engaged portion is disposed on an inner wall of the connecting tube, and the controlling member and the elastic member are disposed at an end of the holding rod; the controlling member has an engaging portion and a pressing portion; the elastic member is located between the controlling member and the holding rod; when the end of the holding rod is inserted into the connecting tube, the engaging portion is located in the connecting tube, and the pressing portion is located out of the connecting tube; an elastic force provided by the elastic member pushes the engaging portion to be engaged with the engaged portion; when the pressing portion is pressed downward, the engaging portion is disengaged from the engaged portion.
 2. The cleaning tool of claim 1, wherein the holding rod includes a rod body and a connector; the connector is connected to an end of the rod body and has a cavity that is recessed into a surface of the rod body; the controlling member and the elastic member are located in the cavity; when the holding rod is detachably connected to the cleaning assembly, the connector is inserted into the connecting tube.
 3. The cleaning tool of claim 2, wherein the engaged portion of the connecting assembly is constituted by an engaging recess which is formed by recessing into the inner wall of the connecting tube; a depth of the engaging recess is gradually increased in a direction from a side of the engaging recess away from an opening end of the connecting tube to another side of the engaging recess near the opening end of the connecting tube; the controlling member of the connecting assembly has a surface, wherein the engaging portion is constituted by a protrusion bulged from the surface; the protrusion has a slanted surface that corresponds to the bottom of the engaging recess; when the protrusion is located in the engaging recess, the holding rod is unable to disengage from the connecting tube.
 4. The cleaning tool of claim 2, wherein the controlling member is a long-shaped plate bod and has two side blocks and a tongue, wherein each of the two side blocks is laterally protruded from one of the two longitudinal edges of the controlling member, and the tongue is formed by protruding outwardly from a lateral edge of the controlling member; the connector has two recesses and a groove, wherein the two recesses are formed by recessing into an inner wall of the cavity; each of the two side blocks of the controlling member is located in one of the two recesses of the connector; the tongue of the controlling member is inserted into the groove of the connector.
 5. The cleaning tool of claim 3, wherein the controlling member is a long-shaped plate bod and has two side blocks and a tongue, wherein each of the two side blocks is laterally protruded from one of the two longitudinal edges of the controlling member, and the tongue is formed by protruding outwardly from a lateral edge of the controlling member; the connector has two recesses and a groove, wherein the two recesses are formed by recessing into an inner wall of the cavity; each of the two side blocks of the controlling member is located in one of the two recesses of the connector; the tongue of the controlling member is inserted into the groove of the connector.
 6. The cleaning tool of claim 3, wherein the pressing portion of the controlling member is a button protruding from the surface of the controlling member; the button has a hollowed portion; the elastic member is a spring, wherein an end of the spring urges against an inner wall of the hollowed portion, and another end of the spring urges against a bottom of the cavity.
 7. The cleaning tool of claim 6, wherein the button has a first height, and the protrusion has a second height, wherein the first height is greater than the second height.
 8. The cleaning tool of claim 2, wherein either the inner wall of the connecting tube of the cleaning assembly or the surface of the connector of the holding rod has at least one of slot, the other one without the slot has at least one protruding bar; when the connector is inserted into the connecting tube, the protruding bar is located in the slot. 